a long campaign is now over. and whether i earned your vote or not, i have listened to you. i have learned from you. and you've made me a better president. >> right now on "andrea mitchell reports" four more years. president obama sweeps nearly all the swing states and pledges to bring the country together. >> i believe we can seize this future together. because we are not as divided as our politics suggest. we're not as cynical as the pundits believe. we are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states, we are and forever will be, the united states of america. >> and in a brief speech notable

for its civility, governor romney called for unity in boston. >> at a time like this we can't risk partisan bickering and political posturing. our leaders have to reach across the aisle to do the people's work and we citizens have to rise to the occasion. >> but will they? can the two sides come together? plus, more women entered the all men's club. mostly men's club. >> you've elected first woman senate from the state of massachusetts. >> a record-setting number of women senators. in new hampshire, the governor, both senators, and the house members, now all women. and they're still counting votes in florida. not again. nine days after sandy's, the east coast is getting another had hit, a powerful nor'easter, threatening to cause new flooding and power outages in the same areas battered by the hurricane. good day. i'm andrea mitchell, the day after, live in new york.

what many expected to be a close contest ended as a resounding electoral college win for president obama. after a hard-fought race spanning two years, so what should we now expect from a second term? joining me now for our daily fix, chris cizilla, msnbc contributor and managing editor of post politics.com and karen, national political correspondent fors the "washington post," as well as "time's" senior correspondent michael crowley. welcome all. thanks so much. well, our daily fix, what are you looking at, chris cizilla, what are the lessons you've learned and looking at in the four years to come? >> well, yeah. i mean let's talk first about lessons learned, andrea. i would say republicans, to blame mitt romney for this loss in some ways misses the point. if you look at the exit polling, be what you see is republicans have large-scale structural issues with their coalition. they -- mitt romney got 27% of the hispanic vote nationally,

barack obama got 71% of the hispanic vote nationally. women made up 53% of the electorate. there was an 11-point gender gap for barack obama. republican -- mitt romney won the white vote by 20 points, but it was, again, for the ump tooents election in a row, a declining share of the overall electorate. it's a dangerous game they are playing demographically. i think many leaders in the party knew that before this election. if they didn't before this election, they certainly know now. i would point you to a statement marco rubio, senator from florida, released early this morning basically saying we need to find ways to reach into minority and immigrant communities in ways we have not. you will hear more of that. let's see, though, how the base of the republican party reacts because that is not been a message that they have been open to in terms of loosening up their approach, their tone, their focus on immigration in the past two years.

>> not at all. in fact, to the contrary. karen, you've been out on the road with both parties and you've seen and i've seen and reported as well and today again, conservative republicans saying it is all mitt romney's fault, he should have been more conservatives, others in the party saying we have to rethink our future. is this going to be a civil war? >> i think that we've seen this happen in other parties. it's certainly the democratic party certainly went through a lot of soul searching after the 1988 election, the republican party did after the 1996 election. there is something about losing two presidential races in a row that really forces this kind of moment on to a party, and i think when the republicans look at the tensions within the party beyond the demographic problems, they've got to also look at the fact that last night, they lost two senate races that, you know, they should have won in missouri and in indiana.

it was because they nominated candidates who were just too extreme even in conservative states. if you look back over the last two elections you could say that about five senate seats. this is not just a presidential problem it's a problem up and down the ballot for the republican party. >> michael crowley, what have we learned about barack obama? he seemed reflective and it was probably his best speech of the whole campaign season. what have we learned about him? what tells us how he's going to govern? whether he will widen his circle, whether he will shake up the cabinet. and most importantly reach out and do a better job of trying to get around or work with those opposing him vigorously in congress? >> yeah. andrea, i think that's still the big $64,000 question. but of course the key thing that has changed is barack obama no

longer has to run for re-election again. he has to care about the fate of his party, who his successor is, but he's not going to have to spend the next four years calculating every move in terms of how it's going to play in a handful of swing states four years hence. that could translate into driving a little more aggressively, taking the fight to republicans a little more aggressive. but that didn't really work so well the first time around. i really think the key question here actually, andrea, is what happens with the economy? i mean, you can imagine a scenario where the economy gains some traction and we actually start to have a bona fide recovery that the president takes credit for, people will -- may argue he doesn't deserve the credit, he will take credit for it, give him a lot of political capital, might help him in the next round of midterm elections. that could decide the course of the next term more than anything. as far as whether he reaches out or fights, the tone in that speech last night was reaching out, reaching across the aisle.

i do think that's pretty typical of what you would get in a speech like that and i think the jury is still a little out on how he's going to play it. >> fair point. we know what he said to the "des moines register" when he thought he was not speaking on the record in the final editorial board meeting and he said top priority would be wide-scale immigration reform, something that george w. bush tried, that john mccain at one point and lindsey graham tried and eventually abandoned or failed under pressure. so now that he's got a second term, is this going to be the great legacy? >> yeah. i think that, you know, i talked to white house officials yesterday who said that, you know, you look at the two of the big issues coming down the pike, his chance to be the mount rush more president, one is potentially immigration reform and the other is tax and entitlement reform and the white house, at least, is much more optimistic after this election

the republicans are going to be ready to deal on immigration. they are -- feel less so about tax reform and entitlement reform. >> andrea -- >> i was going to ask whether the republicans have learned some lessons, the wise men or women in the party, susanna martinez, susan ayotte, jeb bush as a senior and elder of the party, are they going to sort of come to terms with it? a lot of the governors who are frankly many of the republican governors really outdistanced in vision some of the democratic governors and have more diver diversi diversity, will they try to take charge? >> it's a good point in terms of who will lead. someone will lead and and whether they lead it successful or unsuccessfully, someone will lead a speak truth to power to the base and say we understand what you believe, we don't want to break from principle but at

the same time if we can't win national elections we're not going to get any of the things you value. you look at and i know it's the day after 2012, i don't want to do 2016 too quick, but you look at the possible 2016 field, a lot of the names you mentioned are governors. certainly former governor jeb bush, nikki haley, an indian american from south carolina, bobby jindal, indian american from louisiana, susana martinez, there are a lot of different faces in the republican party that may push for different policies for the republican party. the question is, can they get it done? >> andrea, if i can jump in. in my experience meeting republican voters, no issue again rated the emotional intensity of immigration. it was such a passionate issue for conservatives. this is a painful and potentially bloody argument for the party to have. >> michael crowley, thank you so much. karen and chris, everybody get some rest because the fights are

beginning already. thank you. and 163 women candidates ran for house and senate seats. the result is in part the highest number of women senators in american history. at least 19, pending results, final results from the north dakota contest. joining me is the chair of the democratic senatorial committee, washington state senator patty murray. congratulations are in order. everyone is saying you recruited the women, a lot of other good candidates, got a lot of luck because a little bit of luck at least because of those two republican male candidates who really offended a lot of people with their comments on rape. but the wins were there for the democrats. >> well, i think a lot of good things came together and the most important thing is really good people said they would run from joe donnelly in indiana to tim kaine in virginia to all the great women you mentioned including heidi heiden camp who's going to win and what

their common base was that they wanted to come together to help our country work, to make sure we move forward in a positive direction and that is a great message out of the wins across the board, is the democratic party has said this country needs to work every step of the way. they do that and we can all move forward. >> now, when we think back to some of the women's issues, issues of concern to people with certain values, women and men, when we think back to sarah fluke incident you were directly involved in, not being able to testify to that committee, what foster friess said to me about contraception and putting an aspirin between your legs, there were a series of moments, do you think that had anything to do

with your recruitment of these candidates and some of these senate races or was this a larger issue about either the economy or access to health care? what do you think was driving the races? >> i think it's a combination of women who are paying attention to whether or not government is going to make critical decisions about their own health care and the economic impact of that. really we saw this begin back months ago, almost at the beginning of the time when the republicans came in to power in the house and the first few bills they put out took away a woman's right to choose. and then when we were trying to put a budget together so government wouldn't shut down boehner said on the table between us and having the government shut down was funding for planned parenthood. he made it a budget decision. that began the awakening amongst women about what was happening in the republican party and i think again that is an issue

that the republican party has to look at. we have elected candidates across the board who want to make sure we do focus on jobs and the economy and the critical challenges that we face and aren't going to divert to a social agenda. that's been a strong message out of this campaign is women want to make sure government is working for them. >> patty murray, thanks for joining us on this day after. >> and adding insult to injury for this area, the nor'easter is here, now picking up steam, expected to bring rain, high winds, already there is a heavy wet snow falling in these areas on trees that could jeopardize power lines again. jim canner to is in trenton, new jersey, jim, how long is this going to last? what's going to be the worst of it for these people who have suffered? >> i think we have to go through tomorrow morning to be honest. in my wildest dreams i never thought i would be covering a land falling hurricane nine days

ago and a snowstorm today. this is absolutely wild here. let me show you what's going on in scope here. take the camera down to point pleasant beach where mike seidel is, and where we've had the wave action come in. enough so they had too use a lot of heavy equipment to shore up the beaches. what would normally be a little wave action and one to three feet has a chance of causing further erosion and wash out and even bringing the water up to some of the homes. they've been spend issing 24 to 36 hours trying to shore up these beaches and make sure we don't get any more water intrusion. that's the first thing. second thing is, we got snow in new york city coming down right now. light snow reported. a camera from the top of the rock. there's a chance there's a ban of snow up into southwest connecticut that could rotate down right over new york city and produce heavier area of snow. the national weather service in new york has upgraded that area to a winter weather advisory. one to three inches on the grassy areas and in some of the building tops is not out of the

question here. in trenton, we've got a mixture of sleet and snow, nothing heavy at the present time but the radar is showing some very intense snow up across connecticut. near hartford, bristol, waterbury, those areas have accumulating snow. i've seen pictures on the interstate where it is accumulating on the roads. the is intensity of the snow is key, andrea. wherever it falls whether philadelphia, new york, hoboken, hartford, if it comes down fast enough, for a long enough period of time, there are going to be problems on the roads and there are going to be additional power outages. back to you. >> jim canner to, thank you so much for the warnings, i think. say it isn't so. and up next, michael feldman and michael gerson, the two michaels with a full election night debrief. stay with us. [ man ] ring ring... progresso

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was it a superior ground game, better message, chris christie's embrace or bill clinton's charm? joining me former senior adviser to al gore, michael feldman and michael gerson former adviser to george w. bush. welcome both. what a night it was. some surprises. michael feldman, what surprised you the most? >> well, i think the fact that the president really ran the table in the battleground states with the exception of north carolina, i mean it was a more impressive victory than i would have predicted from that respect. it was thorough and, you know, look, i mean i think the president's campaign, the president's campaign had a

strategy and they executed it flawlessly and the results were evident last night. it was a really impressive victory. >> michael gerson, were they just beaten. >> were the republicans beaten by a better ground game and more mathematical targeted approach or is there something fundamentally flawed in the republican strategy in the way they ran the primaries and ignored the demographic changes in america? >> i think it goes deeper than the ground game. this is a case where the largest republican problem is they looked at this election and thought that the 2010 election was a trend. it seems more like an aberration. the natural state of the election in 2012 is more like 2008. you have to appeal to the electorate you have, not the electorate you would want. and that's going to require significant changes in a variety of areas for the republican party. i think democrats were prepared for the change after the

reagan/bush era made changing with bill clinton. republicans were prepared after the clinton era, made changes with george bush and compassionate conservatism. the question is if republicans can after eight years of barack obama make a similar kind of change and, you know, we'll see. that's the process of the next few years. >> you're hearing already, what i'm hearing is, what could lead to a civil war, where conservatives say mitt romney wasn't conservative enough, and where other republican leaders say this primary, which was so skewed to the right, really hurt us on issues like immigration. >> well, andrea, look, i think michael makes a great point about just the fundamental changes in the electorate. if you look at states like nevada and colorado, and virginia specifically northern virginia, and florida along the i-4 corridor, the changes to the electorate are facing the republican party in a stark way.

president bush realized this and michael and his team and there was significant outreach to the latino community in understanding that the party needed to evolve in that direction. some of those lessons were lost and the devicesive ideological primary that mitt romney made, proposed the dream act to beat rick perry has cost him in the election. there will be that conversation and a loud conversation in the republican party but look, that's what elections do. they teach you lessons. i think michael is right, the party will have that conversation internally and i believe they will be competitive moving forward because they don't have a choice. >> go ahead. >> i think it's a one-sided conversation because if you get 27% of the hispanic vote, you cease to be a national party moving forward. i think most smart republicans will get that. there will be disagreement on how you respond to that but this is one area where mitt romney

unfortunately deserved what he got. that wasn't always true in every case in this election but he demagogue this issue in two separate election cycles against five opponents including rick perry this last time around. that came back to hurt him. it puts people like jeb bush and marco rubio in a commanding leadership position on these issues. the party should and i hope will look to them for signals on how to deal with this. >> michael gerson, thank you both so much. and with the election now over, can congress break the gridlock? pat toomey and joe manchin. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. why do we have aflac...

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manchin another democrat who held on last night but did anger some in his party along the way. senator manchin joins me now. congratulations on your re-election, senator, and i know it's -- >> thank you. appreciate it. >> but you didn't say up until the last minute whom you were going to vote for. you are a democrat. can we ask, did you vote for barack obama? >> here's the thing that we've talked about, the election this has been so divisive and we're thinking about the future and bringing the country together and i'm committed to working with the president to rebuild this country and i will do the same if governor romney would have. it's time we start healing the country and pat toomey will be on with us and pat and i have worked across the line on bills, cosponsored it. we have to start healing and bringing this country together. >> what were your concerns about the president? why were you reluctant to endorse him? >> i didn't feel compelled. i had problems with the fiscal cliff that we face. i really feel we can do more and

should do an awful lot more to try to bring some balance to that. we've got to be able to come together and i'm all in on the bowles-simpson approach template we've talked about and been working on. also the environmental and energy policy. i want a balance between the economy and environment and i've spoken loud and clear. use all the resources in our great country and the most environmental friendly way you can. the economy has to be part of the mix. that's using coal, natural gas, developing your solar and your wind and your renewables and fuels of the future. you can't disregard one that's a tremendous base load as coal is right now and i'm just saying, just meet us half way, come to try to understand what we're trying to do. our little state of west virginia has contributed tremendous amounts of this great country and the growth and the prosperity of this country. we want to be able to continue that in a balanced way. >> the president won ohio.

he won pennsylvania. he won other coal states. so why are your concerns, are they unique to west virginia? because the other states voted to re-elect him. >> it's -- you know, it's not just the coal. it's the whole energy. you have to have an energy policy. and i'm willing to work with him. i've tried to. i believe the epa has overreached. when the president was a u.s. senator we had great relationships talking about illinois and west virginia, the concerns we had and the things we agreed upon and the things we thought we can improve upon. i want to get back to that same type of relationship and start moving forward in a real positive way. >> have you had any outreach to the white house? do you think you can work with them? >> i just heard from the vice president, he just called and i appreciate that very much. i can absolutely work with him. >> what did joe biden say to you? >> i've always been willing to work. >> he called and congratulated and said we have to start

working and coming together and rehealing this nation. i agree 1,000 president. he comes from a pennsylvania, my sister state next door to me, and be we have a lot in common so he's been a good friend and we've had a lot of conversations and i enjoy working with him. >> he didn't happen to mention 2016, did he? >> not to me he didn't, no. >> there was a hint of that the other day. thank you very much. >> i would, i would like -- i'm just saying it's time to rebuild america, time to come together, and i'm totally committed. i will do everything i can to work across the aisle. i'm the most bipartisan centrist senator in the senate right now and i'm going to continue to work with my colleagues on both sides. >> thank you very much joe manchin, good to see you, from west virginia. >> appreciate it. president obama said he would be talking to mitt romney about what the republicans can do about fixing the fiscal cliff and senator pat tombeny now

joins me from allentown. do you think that mitt romney is the person that the president needs to be speaking to? is is he the leader of the republican party? >> will, i think it would be terrific if president obama would speak to mitt romney. mitt romney had a lot of very good constructive ideas to get us on the right path. i'm not so sure that that's going to be an extremely fruitful conversation, but it's a good place to start. >> what about your concerns? you've always been a fiscal conservative yet at the same time, republican leaders, mitch mcconnell indicated that there is no give no compromise is going to be possible, that was the signal in his statement last night. don't republicans and democrats and the white house have to start over and try to build some trust? >> well, andrea, first of all, i wouldn't characterize mitch mcconnell's views that way. i don't know what statement you're referring to.

let's remember the actual history. i was there. i was a member of the super committee. and when the democrats insisted they had to have a trillion dollar tax increase even though that doesn't solve the problem i agreed to meet them half way and they left the table. so we were willing. we've been willing to be very reasonable and flexible. what we're saying is let's solve the actual problem, the problem we have, our government programs that are growing too fast. no government program can grow faster than the economy indefinitely and we have a whole bunch of them doing exactly that. if the democrats will come to the table and work with us -- and i hope they will. now that the election is over, i hope we can sit down and put politics aside, at least for a little while and get to work on this, because i think we're living on borrowed time. we have to get the spending under control. >> senator, you well recall that early debate where the candidates at least for the nomination were asked, would you accept $10 in spending cuts for

$1 in tax increases and they all said no. is that kind of a deal that you would consider? would you consider any kind of tax increases if it's balanced by enough spending cuts. >> andrea -- as i just said, the deal that i put on the table put new revenue on the table. the democrats asked for a trillion dollars. that was just way too much. it would be damaging to the economy. but i agreed to offer half of that provided that it come in the context of pro growth tax reform. at the end of the day, we really need to get this economy moving. so i think that sensible and responsible thing to do is to solve our fiscal problem in a way that actually encourages economic growth, not discouraging it. you know, i know the optimal way to solve this problem is not with any additional tax increase, but if that's a price we have to pay, in order to actually solve the problem, as long as it comes in the context of pro growth tax reform, it's something we've considered in the past and we would be willing to consider. >> senator pat toomey, thanks so

much. from pennsylvania. >> thanks for having me. >> up next, what does the republican party do now? we're on storm watch also. live on the jersey shore. stay with us. [ male announcer ] do you have the legal protection you need?

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different. it's not fun here on the jersey shore right now. you get driving wind. you get rain and sleet and a wintry mix as the weather channel likes to call it, a slushy mess hitting your face which is not fun. this town got totally devastated from sandy. they're already starting to flood here and this rain has been coming down here. this is a business district, ocean avenue. every one of the businesses was destroyed by sandy. there are 1500 people in this town and they say every home was affected in one way or the other. minor flooding all the way to major structural damage. this is only adding insult to injury especially for them. right behind me or behind the camera, turning around right now, that's a 20-foot berm they're trying to build, trying to finish it off before the worst of the storm hits. they're hoping that's going to protect them from the ocean on that side. the thing about sea bright which makes it vulnerable to nor'easters is that -- and rain storms like this, it's only

three blocks wide. we have the ocean right here. right past that sand berm you can't see. swing it back around, sorry if we're getting you, that's the river down there. so they get flooded on literally both sides. and they're worried this nor'easter is going to flood and take away what sandy did manage to leave behind and they're hoping it's going to pass by without any major problems. andrea? >> katie, thanks to you and thanks to your camera crew for this very graphic description of how vulnerable those folks are. >> we have a great crew out here. can't ask for anything more. >> good luck to you out there and all the good people of sea bright. >> and as the day of soul searching for republicans across the country, some saying they need to rethink their nomination process and many just trying to figure out how did they blow another chance to retake the senate. joining me now is charlie cook, founder of the cook political report, who understands everything about everything that happened last night.

charl charlie, how did they come up with todd akin and richard mourdock and completely blow two senate seats? >> the first -- let me ask you, andrea, i got up at 5:30 this morning in a hotel room in new york and you were already on "morning joe." did you get any sleep? >> no. but then that's what you can tell, as we've been going straight through. >> i'm just checking. i think you're on tv when i went to bed at 2:00 a.m. and you were there when i got up at 5:00. yeah, i mean here's the remarkable thing. at the cook political report, and jennifer duffy is our senate editor we had ten races in tossup and it now looks like republicans will have won nine out of -- excuse me democrats will have won nine out of ten. there were five democratic seats, five republican seats. nine out of ten. >> now as you know, you and and we have declared the -- that john tester has overnight won in montana which was a tough race for him.

the democratic incumbent. what do you think is happening with heidi high camp? >> i'm hearing she's ahead. don't know for sure. you know, we know that even in nonwave years, the toss up races don't break down the middle, two-thirds one way or one third the other. whatever is -- if you have a bunch of races within a point or two, that last gust of wind, one way or the other, kind of tips them over. nine out of ten, wow. that's really, really quite something. and the take away for me is that you had an election where moderate democrats like joe donnelly -- senate candidates like joe donnelly in indiana and hei heidi hide cam p and she pulls ahead and they were able to win,

moderate republican counterparts running in -- excuse me running in blue states like scott brown in massachusetts, like linda edgele in hawaii, they were not able to win and i put that as brand damage. you had a great panel on earlier that talked about how the republican brand is so badly damaged right now, that even their moderates can't win if they're in enemy districts while democratic moderates can win when they're in enemy districts. that goes back to this retooling that republicans just have to do if they're going to be competitive in the future in terms of demographics and in terms of social and cultural issues. >> of course, democrats are still challenged. they picked up seats but they're challenged in the house. there's a lot of talk about what's going to happen with the house democratic leadership. what are you hearing about nancy pelosi and whether she's going to hang in or turn the leadership over to someone else? >> i'm not hearing anything, but

to me the two most likely options for minority leader pelosi, a, she decides to leave soon like before their leadership elections later this month, or the second option is maybe she decides to stay around into early next year, to get through the budget deal, and then leave after that. but i can't imagine that she'll be leader or even a member of congress two years from now, that she'll step aside. does she do it sooner or later? if she does or when she does, do democrats go for -- do they go for steny hoyer, sort of a moderate, practicigmatic well l guy number two, or decide to skip and go for generational change and skip down and go with a younger person but three or four in that group. >> lots of changes even though it was a status quo election

with the republicans keeping the house, democrats keeping the senate, put a lot of internal mackie nations at the same time. thank you very much. up next, we have nbc's tom brokaw on the lessons learned from 2012. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. i just finished a bowl of your new light chicken pot pie soup and it's so rich and creamy... is it really 100 calories? let me put you on webcan... ...lean roasted chicken... and a creamy broth mmm i can still see you. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

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constipated? yeah. mm. some laxatives like dulcolax can cause cramps. but phillips' caplets don't. they have magnesium. for effective relief of occasional constipation. thanks. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'. last night's election proves dem moggraphy is destiny. tom brokaw joins me now. the country is changing and the political party, the republicans at least, have not. >> i've been for the last year or so been going around the country and talking about the need for big ideas, bold ideas, we've always been at our best when we have that and what i do is turn the conversation to what goes on in silicon valley.

we're transformed by the technology that comes out of it. we're in awe with it. i never see you without that in your hand. we used it last night. the mantra in silicon valley is be disruptive. change convention, challenge it. do things in a new way to adapt to the new world. and while we're all in awe of that and use it and spend money on it, when it comes to the other parts of our life, we're playing by the old rules and the republican party and this campaign especially was playing by the old rules. they got trapped in the primary season if which week after week it was this reality show of horror of proportions in which they would beat up on each other and move the party farther to the right. they have a big reclamation job in front of them and we'll see how that comes out. at the same time the president, who sometimes is the luckiest candidate in the world when he runs, but he had a brilliant staff putting together this campaign for him, i just came from a group of kind of

high-powered businessmen, and they're wondering will he change? will he seize the reigns of leadership and be as good as a politician and political leader as he is as a campaigner. >> we've seen second term presidents really seize the reigns and try to perform in that way and think about their legacy and he did tell the "des moines register" he's thinking about immigration as a top priority because everything was so calculated in their approach. ands he specially their approach to congress. it's remarkable how alienated senior democrats, democratic senior chairmen felt from the white house. >> in part because he was not a creature of washington. spent little time in the senate. he's a very reserved person as we know, more insular than he appears to be when you see him in public. he didn't have a big ramp up time. he didn't get to the white house through the senate and the kind of, you know, putting your arm around the guy across the aisle and twisting the arm and having a drink at the end of the day.

he's a post-modern president as well as running a post-modern campaign. but now to get things done in washington, as you know, be you've got to step up and you got to spend some of the political capital that he now has. that's always that's the test of a leader. are they willing to pend the currency or just going to play it safe? a lot of people are talking to him about what he needs to do. he's reaching out to folks, asking them for their advice so we'll see. >> business community you speak to people here in new york today again. they're very suspicious and very angry. >> yeah. i don't have a lot of sympathy for them. the fact is that they have done pretty well in the last four years all things concerned and the big banks bailed out and didn't spend the money anywhere else in the country. i think new york does distort your view a little bit given the amount of money available around here and what their expectations are about what they're owed. there's a lot of that. i just came back from the great

plains. i was out pleasant hunting in south dakota and spent time in montana and iowa and nebraska, minnesota, business is booming. people are doing well. agriculture is gone to a whole different level. >> and natural gas. >> and natural gas coming out of the shale in north dakota. that's a big piece of it, obviously. but the small cities like sioux falls and ames, iowa, it's kind of throbbing with promise and possibilities. because they didn't do anything dumb in the downturn and they have a sense of proportion. they're not overreaching constantly for whatever the next brass ring is. >> important lessons. >> right. >> thank you so much. lessons from the prairie and the great plains. >> right. >> tom brokaw. what political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? that's next. stay with us. gecko (clearing throat)

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which political story will make headlines in 24 hours? chris is back. chris, we are expecting the speaker of the house, john boehner in an hour and a half or so to talk about the fiscal cliff. which john boehner will show up? the one to make a deal or protect the flank of the tea party? >> it's a fascinating question. as soon as it ends, there is a real and looming crisis for the country. my guess is that john boehner does not sort of offer too much in the way of olive branches or stick too hard line. the statements the day after the election is an opening bid. i do not think after john boehner watched the president be re-elected between 300 and 332 electoral votes and democrats pick up seats in the u.s. senate and after he watched his own party lose a handful of seats in

the house, i don't think he's going to go hard line and i don't think he's con sillatory either. >> thanks so much. it's going to be a good ride. that does it for us. tomorrow, we have virginia governor bob macdonald. hi, tamron. >> great to see you. in the next hour, the home coming you might call it. president obama ready to leave chicago and head back to washington fresh off his victory. that's happening in the next hour. conservative republican steve dice out of iowa and the cleveland plain dealer's joe frolic join me to talk about the reaction to the big win for the president. chris van hollen will join the news nation. will the fever be broken? his words to republicans in the house who may want to obstruct

the president. plus, pot laws pass in two states. ryan grim will join us live to talk about it. [ lisa ] my name's lisa, and chantix helped me quit. i honestly loved smoking, and i honestly didn't think i would ever quit. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. it put me at ease that you could smoke on the first week. [ male announcer ] some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if you develop these stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening.

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[ tylenol bottle ] me too! and nasal congestion. [ tissue box ] he said nasal congestion.